A Polish university student has been arrested on suspicion of preparing an explosives attack on a Christmas market, the authorities said on Tuesday.
The first-year law student at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland’s east was “fascinated by Islam and terrorism”, said special services spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski.
He told journalists the 19-year-old was suspected of preparing “an attack in a city against a Christmas market”.
Prosecutors said they had foiled preparations “at the preliminary stage”, adding that the young man had been in touch with “representatives of the Islamic State group”.
“The suspect’s motive was to cause serious intimidation of many people and to support the activities of the so-called Islamic State,” a national prosecutor’s office statement read.
The Polish national, identified only as Mateusz W, has been charged with “preparing a terrorist attack that could have resulted in the death or serious injury of many people”, the statement added.
He has been placed in custody for 30 days and faces a life sentence, the statement read.
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